UK expands NIL opportunities for athletes with extension of Fanatics partnership
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK Athletics is expanding and extending its partnership with Fanatics.
- The 12-year extension between Kentucky and Fanatics will last through 2038.
- The move is expected to create more NIL opportunities for UK student athletes.
UK Athletics and Fanatics announced an expanded partnership Friday morning that includes more NIL opportunities for Kentucky athletes.
The deal between UK and Fanatics is being extended for 12 years and will run through 2038.
The expansion of Kentucky’s partnership with Fanatics is highlighted by a sizable NIL commitment that is expected to cover a variety of UK teams and select athletes.
This includes use of the existing Fanatics creator program, which is the company’s influencer marketing arm. Select UK athletes will be able to create their own storefronts through this program and curate product collections. Fans can then visit these storefronts and purchase items.
Traditional marketing pathways will also be available to some Kentucky athletes through Fanatics. For example, UK athletes will be part of digital and brick-and-mortar marketing campaigns when new Kentucky merchandise is released.
The first wave of Kentucky athletes to feature in this expanded partnership will be named at a later date.
There’s already a robust relationship in place between Kentucky and Fanatics, which have been partners for more than a decade.
Fanatics will continue to operate UK’s official team online store, serve as UK’s Athletics’ primary apparel licensee partner and offer UK products through Fanatics Collectibles, which includes physical and digital trading cards and other sports memorabilia pieces.
Fanatics will also handle third-party retail distribution for UK Athletics at locations such as Kroger and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Kentucky athlete-branded gear is also expected to have a stronger presence at team shops inside UK venues.
While there have been NIL opportunities through Fanatics for UK athletes in the past, this expanded partnership offers formalized NIL opportunities at scale.
The NIL component of the UK and Fanatics partnership will be run through BBNIL, which is an NIL collaborative built and jointly-operated by UK Athletics and its multimedia rights partner, JMI Sports. In August, Kentucky extended its multimedia rights partnership with JMI Sports through 2040.
“The differentiator in a partnership like this is the structure behind it and its benefit to UK’s student-athletes,” Kim Shelton, the senior vice president of NIL strategy at JMI Sports, said in a news release. “By pairing this long-term investment with a platform built to support it, we are able to create campaign consistency and scale that delivers meaningful opportunities to student-athletes and lasting impact for Fanatics to be embedded in the program for years to come.”
Last July, the NCAA’s House settlement went into effect., allowing schools to distribute money directly to athletes. But NIL contracts must be approved by a third-party clearinghouse called NIL Go. The clearinghouse ensures the NIL deals are for legitimate business purposes and are for fair market value.
Also last summer, Kentucky shifted the management of its athletic department into a nonprofit LLC called Champions Blue.
With the Fanatics and JMI deals in place, UK now has two long-term deals with longtime partners covering retail, multimedia rights and NIL operations.
Kentucky is also searching for its next athletic director.
Current AD Mitch Barnhart will be stepping down as athletic director at the end of June, but he’s staying on at Kentucky as the school’s first executive in residence of a new UK Sport and Workforce Initiative.
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 9:01 AM.
